Cold Reads celebrates Writer of the Month! Throughout August, we will be studying the works of Edgar Allan Poe and
celebrating his massive contributions to the horror genre.

Perfect
in every possible way, Edgar
Allan Poe's
"The
Masque of the Red Death"
remains to this reviewer a tour de force of horror and literature. In
some ways it exceeds "The
Tell-Tale Heart"
in its greatness and beauty, making it the perfect tribute to end
this month of appreciations to a master.

The
hideous Red Death may be ravaging the land, but this mere trifle does
not disturb Prince Prospero in the least. Gathering his closest of
friends in his secure abbey, the prince holds a magnificent costumed
ball to alleviate the minds of his guests from the bothersome reaper
who knocks at the door. But as the music swells and the great ebony
clock rings out its eerie chimes, a mysterious guest makes himself
present amongst the crowd...(read more...)

I grew up on two kinds of horror movies: Universal creature features and Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe films. I have very specific memories of watching Vincent Price going mad in Pit and the Pendulum and cheering on the magic duel in The Raven. These are formative experiences in my life as a film aficionado, so when Jose Cruz decided to devote a month of his Cold Reads column to celebrating Poe's short stories, I felt it was the right time to pay tribute to the cinematic triumvirate of Corman, Price, and Poe.

In the 1950s, the Cold War was steaming up and alien invasion
movies were making big bucks at the box office. Combining the two was
a natural pairing that emerged throughout the decade . One of the
more intelligent efforts to come from that era is Roger Corman's It
Conquered the World. Written by Corman's friend and frequent
collaborator Charles B. Griffith, the film uses its alien antagonist
to play on the fear of Communism as a external force bent on
brainwashing and depersonalizing humanity, while simultaneously
exploring a very human debate about the pros and cons of the "Red
Menace." The result is a deeply satisfying,
thought-provoking viewing experience.
(read more...)

Cold Reads celebrates Writer of the Month! Throughout August, we will be studying the works of Edgar Allan Poe and
celebrating his massive contributions to the horror genre.

Well,
I didn't expect a kind of Spanish
Inquisition!
*Diabolical music* No
one expects
the Spanish Inquisition! This week's creepy classic is Poe's
immortal "The
Pit and the Pendulum,"
a devilish descent into the tortures of the Inquisition minus the
soft pillows and comfy chair of Monty Python's hilarious skit. Poe
drenches his short tale in a palpable sordidness that will instill a
bad
taste in
the reader's mouth and a tangible shiver in the skin.(read more...)

Man, those folks at Shout! Factory really push the nostalgia buttons, don't they? After their releases of Gamera the Giant Monster and Gamera vs. Barugon in DVD special editions, they're returning to the giant turtle with a pair of double features -- Gamera Vs. Gyaos / Gamera Vs. Viras
and Gamera Vs. Guiron / Gamera Vs. Jiger
. All four films will be presented in their original Japanese versions. Both double feature DVDs will be released on September 21, 2010 and carry a suggested retail price of $19.93 (you can pre-order them from Amazon.com by clicking the set titles above). Below you'll find the film descriptions from the press release to further whet your appetite for kaiju carnage.(read more...)

The popularity of horror films set in
polar settings is hard to ignore. In the 1950s, during one of
horror's most misunderstood subgenres - the creature feature film
- polar landscapes were a common setting that harbored dinosaurs,
aliens, and mutant insects. However, those landscapes assumed roles
subordinate to their narratives' focus because more pressing
geopolitical issues related to the Cold War dominated the day.
(read more...)

Cold Reads celebrates Writer of the Month! Throughout August, we will be studying the works of Edgar Allan Poe and
celebrating his massive contributions to the horror genre.

Throughout
the fiction of Edgar Allan Poe, there is a recurring theme of murder
and the agonizing guilt that soon follows afterward. "The Tell-Tale
Heart" and "The Black Cat" are the exemplary stories of this
common theme. I chose "The Black Cat" because I think that almost
everyone and their grandmothers have read "The Tell-Tale Heart."
I felt that hardly any attention was given to the tale up for this
week's review and, having never read it myself, I decided to give
it a go. What I discovered was an excellent tale of the supernatural
that, while not quite matching the intensity of "Tell-Tale,"
deserves to be read by any fan of the master.(read more...)

Another Shiverin' 6, folks, this time focusing on some of the best horror flicks released fifty years ago in 1960. They come from all around the globe and from all sorts of genres, but they're all highly recommended. As always, the Shiverin' 6 represents some of the best from a given category, not necessarily the best. As such, the entries aren't ranked but listed alphabetically. Be sure to let us know in the comments what some of your favorites from 1960 are!(read more...)

In 1968, the British production company Tigon had found a measurable degree of success with the release of Michael Reeves' classic tale of greed and corruption, Witchfinder General. In a concerted effort to provide audiences with a film along the same lines a screenplay by Robert Wynne-Simmons was commissioned, Piers Haggard was brought on board to direct, and The Blood on Satan's Claw took root. In most cases, when a film is made by a studio hoping to cash in on a previous effort, the resulting film comes across as mere imitation. In this instance, however, a perfect combination of accurate period details, overwhelming atmosphere, and convincing central performances help provide the basis for one of the finest British horror films of the 1970s.(read more...)

Cold Reads celebrates Writer of the Month for August! For the next
four weeks, we will be studying the works of Edgar Allan Poe and
celebrating his massive contributions to the horror genre.

Edgar Allan Poe is known for many
things, one of which is being one of the leading voices in
American Gothic literature. But his work in creating detective
fiction as we know it today (along with the likes of Voltaire and
E.T.A. Hoffman) is usually overlooked in favor of his more macabre
pieces. Without Poe's help, sleuths such as Sherlock Holmes and Sam
Spade may never have come into existence. "The Murders in the Rue
Morgue" marks the first appearance of Poe's famous detective C.
Auguste Dupin in a tale of homicide gone completely wild.(read more...)